Tangerine Dream: The Sessions IV

When is a dream no longer tangerine? Well, for some it’s when Tangerine Dream decided to continue on after the death of Edgar Froese in 2015. However, the trio who kept the dream alive - Thorsten Quaeschning (synthesiser), Ulrich Schnauss (synthesiser, ableton) and Hoshiko Yamane (electric viola and violin) being the trio featured here (Schnauss is longer in the band I believe) - all served time with Froese and quite undoubtedly moved forward with the intention of staying true to the Tangerine ethos.

The Sessions IV is, as you’d expect, the fourth in a series of live releases where the trio improvise - very much a Tangerine Dream feature - in front of an audience who may, judging from the results, feel familiar with, but not actually know the material as it evolves. Themes that are conjured appear to be pulled from the band’s catalogue, but without simply re-presenting them. Instead these previous ideas are often hinted at but only briefly.

Three separate live appearances are brought together across this album - all coming from 2018 - with sides one and two of the deep, luscious green double vinyl version I was sent for review, recorded in Pisa in Italy, side three from Oslo in Norway and side four from Gothenburg in Sweden. It is also worth mentioning at this point that as live recordings go, the intentional lack of crowd noise until the very end makes for an unexpected listening experience where it’s difficult to feel like you are hearing a live show at all, while still somewhere having the notion that it definitely isn’t a studio recording either. No matter how that shapes proceedings, the ‘compositions’ are impressive, smooth, evolving and tight. Only occasionally, when a tempo changes, or mood shifts, do you ever get the impression that these are not pre-planned, or mapped out pieces of music. Although I’d guess there is at least some starting point created prior to the shows, but I could well be wrong in that assumption. The vinyl pressing itself is also very good, especially by modern standards.

Improvised or not, all 4 sides seem to follow a similar(ish) path, beginning small and compact and opening up as we go along, before new and differing elements are introduced as we reach the end of the journey. Mood music it may be (Tangerine Dream always was I guess) but it’s also expansive, engaging and involving. What is also interesting is that the four excerpts included here all came from full length shows where the rest of the set was made of music from TD’s studio albums and it would have been intriguing to discover how that context altered the impact of what we hear on this release.

The Sessions IV is an impressive and at times challenging set of soundscapes that always hit home with a purpose and belief that is a credit to those creating them. Whether you view this as out and out Tangerine Dream or not, their legacy is safe in these hands.

Track Listing
1. Four Degrees Parallax (part one) - 11.27pm Session, recorded live at Internet Festival, 13th October 2018, Teatro Verdi, Via Palestro, Pisa, Italy
2. Four Degrees Parallax (part two) - 11.27pm Session, recorded live at Internet Festival, 13th October 2018, Teatro Verdi, Via Palestro, Pisa, Italy
3. Persepsjontransformasjon - 10.32pm Session, recorded live, 10th August 2018, Ola Festival, Tøyenparken, Oslo, Norway
4. Gothenburg 2018 - 4.45pm Session, recorded live 11th August 2018, Way Out Festival, Slottsskogen, Gothenburg, Sweden

Added: April 30th 2026
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Tangerine Dream @ bandcamp
Hits: 11
Language: english

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